How to

Apply for the Graduation fund

Applying for inclusion into the Graduation fund doesn’t have to take a lot of time, if you prepare it well. It all starts with form A, which can be found under ‘Forms’. In this form, some general information about the organisation has to be filled in and several questions have to be answered. Pay attention when filling in this form, because not all questions apply to all organisations. Check which questions apply to your organisation and only fill these in. Furthermore, there is an exact list of documents that have to handed in in order to make the application complete. All documents will be treated separately below. Behind the information, the name under which the document has to be handed in is shown. In these names, you will often find [org] or [year], then you have to fill in the name of the organisation or the year which these documents cover between square brackets.

Compulsory documents:

Form A:

For a complete application, it is necessary that this form is filled in (only the applicable parts). This documents has to be handed in under the name: “0. Form A [org]”.

Up-to-date Articles of Association, authenticated and signed:

This is also pretty clear: in order to hand in an application for an organisation, this organisation needs to have Articles of Association. These Articles have to meet a few conditions. These conditions can be found in Article 4 of Appendix 1 of the Regulations for the Graduation fund, under ‘regulations’. This document has to be handed in under the name: “1. Articles [org]”.

Registration from the Chamber of Commerce:

Besides the articles of association, you also have to send us an abstract of the Chamber of Commerce. We need this document to see if an organisation has full legal competence, which is one of the conditions for inclusion in the Graduation fund. It is also important that all board members are registered at the CoC. This may take a while, so start this process in due time! This document has to be handed in under the name: “2. Abstract CoC [org]”.

The most recent budget of the Organisation:

Another general condition is that an organisation makes a budget for every year. In order to check this we ask from each organisation to send us their most recent budget. This document has to be handed in under the name: “3. Budget [year][org]”.

Approved financial year reports of the last 3 years, including profits and loss and explanation:

Every organisation also has to fulfill the condition to hand in a financial year report for the last 3 financial years. A tip: make the reports and especially the balances clearly readable, for example by adding a table with abbreviations used and their meanings. This document has to be handed in under the name: “4. Financial year report [yeaar][org]”. When handing in multiple documents, please do so under the following names: “4.2 [document][year][org]”.

Approved secretarial/abactial year reports of the last 3 years, including an overview of activities:

Another general condition is the handing in of the Secretarial/Abactial year reports, approved by a General Members Assembly, of the past 3 association years. For every year, we also need an overview of activities. These overviews can be made using form D (under ‘Forms’). This form, when filled in, contains all information CUOS needs. Because it can be quite a chore to fill this form in for every activity that was organised over the last 3 years, it’s wise to keep track of this. The overviews are used to assess the workload of the board of an organisation, so it’s important to fill everything in correctly. This document has to be handed in under the name: “5. Secretarial/Abactial year report [year] [org]”. When handing in multiple documents, please do so under the following names: “5.2 [document][year][org]”.Nog een algemene voorwaarde is het aanleveren van de Secretariële/Abactiale jaarverslagen, goedgekeurd door een Algemene LedenVergadering, van de afgelopen 3 verenigingsjaren. Hierbij moet van ieder jaar een activiteitenoverzicht zitten. Deze overzichten kunnen gemaakt worden met behulp van formulier D (onder Formulieren). Dit formulier bevat ingevuld alle informatie die CUOS nodig heeft. Omdat het best veel werk kan zijn om voor een aanvraag voor iedere activiteit van de afgelopen 3 jaar zo’n formulier in te vullen is het raadzaam om dit goed bij te houden. De activiteitenoverzichten worden onder andere gebruikt om de bestuurslast van een vereniging te beoordelen, dus het is zaak deze goed in te vullen. Dit document moet worden aangeleverd onder de naam: “5. Secretariëel/abactiaal jaarverslag [jaar] [org]”. Bij aanlevering van meerdere stukken, graag onder de namen: “5.2 [document][jaar][org]”

An up-to-date list of all paying members:

In many cases, organisations need to have a minimum number of members to be eligible for inclusion into the Graduation fund. That is why we would like to receive an up-to-date list of all members, so that we can check how many members an organisation has. This list may be at most 6 months old (Article 4(d), Appendix 1 of the Regulations regarding the Graduation fund), and has to be handed in via a filled-in form L (can be found under ‘Forms’). This document has to be handed in under the name: “6. Membership list [org]”.

Note: Members only count for the evaluation if they are students at the UG or at Hanze UAS. It is therefore essential to hand in up-to-date and correct student numbers! We cannot use the other data due to the privacy legislation. We do need the other data in order to prevent fraud.

If Applicable:

Proof of the amount of paying members:

In case that your organisation has members who pay a membership fee, we would like to receive a proof of the amount of paying members: the entry ‘contributions’ in the financial year report can be splitted into the different levels of contribution and the number of members who pay that specific amount. We can use this to check how many members actually pay membership feest. This document has to be handed in under the name: “ 7. Proof paying members [org]”.

Proof of the organisation of yearly activities regarding the guarding and advancement of educational quality:

In case that your organisation organises activities for the advancement of the educational quality, we would like to see a proof of this. This can for example be a proof of meetings with the programme director or the faculty board (a proof can be the minutes of those meetings). This documents should be handed in under the name: “8. Proof organisation activities[org]”.

By handing in all documents above completely, the application is complete. The deadline for the application is every year on the 15th november at noon. The application can be handed in via cuos.aanvraag@rug.nl, please mention the name of the organisation for which you hand in the application.

Tips:

Start on time! The deadline of the application for inclusion into the Graduation fund is every year on the 15th of november at noon. Applications that are received after this deadline will NOT be processed! Depending on your predecessors, the application can be a matter of collecting the right documents and handing everything in, or it can be the case that you have to fill in over a hundred forms D because that didn’t happen during the last years. Don’t underestimate the amount of work that the application can contain!

Be kind to your successors: keep a map with all the documents needed for the next application. For example, fill in form D after every activity, and save all year reports complete and clearly. This way, the workload stays manageable and you’ll save the board that has to do the next application a lot of stress.

Are you struggling? Don’t panic! Every year, CUOS organises an information meeting about the application for the Graduation fund. Here you’ll receive an overall explanation of what is expected and there is an opportunity to ask questions. Besides this, you can always send your questions to cuos@rug.nl or call to 050-3634657. You can also always make an appointment for a cup of coffee and some more explanation.